Sleep Apnea, which affects about 20 million Americans, results in memory loss, poor concentration, and chronic fatigue. (from an earlier Smartkit post)

Adding to the evidence that sleep apnea induces structural abnormalities in the brain- a new study out of UCLA shows patients with Sleep Apnea have shrunken mammillary bodies (brain structures important for memory function). Click here to read the abstract.

Here’s the press release from the UCLA website.

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If you’ve never played Sudoku before, it really is fun- and simple. Rules: Put numbers in the squares so that 1-9 appear only once in each row, column, and 3×3 box.

The basic version of Smartkit Sudoku is free and can be played here.

The full version is $9.95 and can generate unlimited puzzles at 3 difficulty levels. There is a hint button and ‘Print’ ability so you can take & play your puzzles on the go. In addition to ‘pencil marks’, the full version has several additional nice features.

For short while, we’ll throw in our brand new PLEXUS puzzle ‘Medieval” when you purchase Smartkit Sudoku. (Click here to try our 1st PLEXUS puzzle- Olla Podrida).

Click here to try Smartkit Sudoku, and learn more about its features.

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Some highlights from a new study out of Cornell University regarding lead toxicity and the brain:

• The Center for Disesase Control and Prevention (CDC) has standards that say a lead level below 10 mcg/dl is safe
• However, 1 out of 10 children in the United States has a blood lead level (BLL) of 5 mcg/dl or higher
• This new study found that the average IQ scores of children with BLLs of only 5 to 10 mcg/dl were about 5 points lower than the IQ scores of children with BLLs less than 5 mcg/dl.

According to the authors of the six year study:  "The results provide compelling evidence that low-level lead exposure has effects into the school-age years…The bottom line… is that lead is a persistent neurotoxin that causes brain damage. The fact that lead has been found in millions of toys, even toys specifically designed for children to put into their mouths, presents an unacceptable risk. Our findings suggest the need to re-evaluate the current federal standards for lead in consumer products and the current definition of an elevated BLL in children".

About a year ago I posted this article about lead effects in adults, that also lists some surprising toxic sources from the home.

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Your brain is extremely fragile, and easily damaged by concussions and other forms of acceleration/deceleration injury. Back in January, I posted the story about Andre Waters-an NFL defensive back who committed suicide at the age of 44. The pathologist who examined his brain concluded it had the appearance of an 85 year old man with Alzheimer’s disease, and thought the severe dementia-like changes were probably due to the multiple concussions sustained over the course of his football career.

The July issue of Neurology Today discusses how the same pathologist (world-renowned Dr. Bennet Omalu, MD out of the University of Pittsburgh) has autopsied the brain of Justin Strzelczyk, a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman who died in a car crash at age 36.

Interestingly, Dr. Omalu finds that Strzelczyk’s brain also has the appearance of an 80 year old man, and shows similar pathologic changes compared to what Andre Waters had in his brain.

This is the 4th football player brain Dr. Omalu has autopsied and diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Within several years time, I suspect more and more studies will come forth showing how widespread brain damage is amongst NFL players.

And next up will be the soccer players. Already, well over a dozen studies indicate heading induces measurable cognitive deficits.

Most people are surprised to learn just how fragile and easily damaged the human brain really is.

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Alcohol’s toxic effect on the brain is readily communicated by this MRI scan comparing a normal brain to that of an alcoholic:

As you can see, the alcoholic brain on the right is massively shrunken due to brain cell loss.

While visiting Chicago recently, was reminded just how much alcohol is a part of young people’s lives. As you drive through Wrigleyville, Downtown, Lincoln Park, Andersonville you can’t help but notice bars are everywhere. Unfortunately, when many students drink, they do it to excess- i.e., they binge. What I wish I could tell all students is that the overwhelming amount of research clearly indicates binge drinking is very bad for your brain and will seriously impair your ability to learn and get good grades- both in the short and long term. From a 2007 study that appeared in the European Journal of Neuroscience:

These findings indicate that binge pattern exposure to ethanol during adolescence induces brain damage by inflammatory processes and causes long-lasting neurobehavioural consequences.

Here’s the conclusions from another study looking at binge drinking in young adults [Reference 2 below]:

…differences can be seen in mood and cognitive performance between those that binge drink and those that do no

And it’s not just college students. According to the National Institutes of Health, almost 1 out of 10 Americans meet standard diagnostic criteria for an alcohol use disorder.

The latest bit of alcohol-brain atrophy research comes from Carol Ann Paul (of Wellesley College) and colleagues. They looked at MRI brain scans of 1839 people aged 34 to 88, and their findings (presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 59th Annual Meeting in Boston May 2007) indicate the more you chronically drink, the more your brain volume decreases. The results held true even for moderate drinkers.

According to Carol:

There is a continuous negative correlation between alcohol consumption and total brain volume. It seems that there is not a beneficial effect of even small amounts of alcohol on brain volume.

For an earlier story about how alcohol knocks the teenage brain off its growth trajectory, click here.

Another bit of research released May 10, 2007 reveals alcohol can also induce atrial fibrillation, a very common heart arrhythmia which is a very strong risk factor for strokes.

Reference 1: Paul CA et al. "The Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Total BrainVolume: The Framingham Heart Study." Abstract P05.030, presented May 2.

Reference 2: Townshend JM, Duka T. Binge Drinking, cognitive performance and mood in a population of young social drinkers. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005 Mar;29(3):317-25.

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[click on image above to jump to journal article detailing brain-heart interactions]

According to a just released report in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor, nearly 150 people lost their lives in 2006 to Karoshi.

Karoshi is a Japanese term for "death from overwork".

Back in the 1980s, when several high-ranking business executives who were still in their prime years suddenly died without any previous sign of illness, the media began picking up on what appeared to be a new phenomenon. This new phenomenon was quickly labeled kar?shi. [Wikipedia]

According to this article:

Because of peer pressure to keep up with co-workers, out-do competing groups and increase market-share at the expense of competitors, hundreds of thousand of Japanese managers are caught up in a vortex of psychological pressure that forces them to work at a frenzied pace.

Is this possible? Can you suddenly die from overworking? Absolutely. Severe stress can in fact trigger cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks, and strokes. Over the years, many of the younger stroke patients I’ve consulted on in the hospital give a history of severe stress in the days leading up the stroke.

In the last decade we’ve learned that strong emotions and stress activate specific brain regions which in turn directly influence cardiac rate and rhythm via the autonomic nervous system. A very nice review of this topic (full text & free PDF) can be found here. It’s entitled: Brain-Heart Interactions. The neurocardiology of arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. A diagram from the article illustrating the anatomic brain-heart connections is shown above.

We therefore have a mechanism by which ethereal emotions can have a concrete, injurious effect on heart tissue.

Unfortunately, as this world gets increasingly competitive, more and more people are getting desperate and having to work harder and harder to achieve success. Thus we have up to 25% of college students using stimulants, and are starting to see the 70-hour work week become the new standard.

Reference for above Brain-Heart article: Tex Heart Inst J. 1993; 20(3): 158–169.

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My wife got an email from one of her friends tonight about ‘Strawberry Quick’. As if parents don’t have enough to worry about, this strawberry flavored methamphetamine candy (looks like ‘Pop-Rocks’) is being passed around schools nationwide.

Fourteen 6th graders were hospitalized yesterday in Oklahoma after consuming the little pink crystals.

According to this article:

Strawberry Quick began to show up around mid-February on the West Coast, and the trend is moving east.

This stuff is real bad; among other things, it can quickly lead to heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, convulsions, and death.

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From a recent update posted on the Medscape Neurology section:

Researchers at the American Academy of Neurology 59th Annual Meeting presented preliminary results from a study showing that long term exposure to secondhand smoke alone increases your risk for dementia by about 30%.

If you’re interested in learning more about the potential mechansim by which cigarattes destroy your brain, click here to read this earlier post. 

Reference: American
Academy of Neurology 59th Annual Meeting: Abstract S01.005. April 28 – May
5, 2007.

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Stimulants are being used with increasing frequency by students across college campuses (see ‘Harvard Students: Reaching for drugs to boost brain power). Many of them, however, probably aren’t well aware of the various side effects. In addition to chronic cognitive problems, amphetamines can also induce catastrophic acute events.

An article in the December 2006 issue of Neurology [Reference here] describes a couple of cases of carotid artery dissections following amphetamine use. The carotid arteries are two of the major blood vessels that travel up the neck and supply blood to the brain. When these arteries dissect (tear), strokes often ensue. A stroke is a focal area of permanent brain death due to lack of blood flow.

Cocaine, another sympathomimetic (drug that mimics the effects of sympathetic nervous system stimulation), has also been reported to cause tears in major blood vessels.

It is also important to note that amphetamines and cocaine can also lead to strokes via another mechanism: inflammation of blood vessels in the brain [click here for reference]. The medical term for this process is Vasculitis.

Since the vast majority of strokes are "silent", I suspect the prevalence of strokes due to stimulants is much higher than officially reported or recognized.

As far as more common chronic side effects, an earlier smartkit post details how just 3 months of Ritalin use (an amphetamine) can significantly damage the very blueprint of cell architecture- DNA.

In future posts, I’ll discuss oxidative damage as well as cardiac side effects.

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Just last week I was telling my wife that, after having heard hundreds
of violent crime stories from victims and their families over the years, it was my conclusion that in the vast majority of cases, the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, or prescription drugs, and that without this influence, the violent crime probably would not have taken place.

Today I’ve had a chance to finally catch up on some of the news regarding the Virginia Tech massacre. I’ve looked through quite a few of the articles, and nowhere was it mentioned that Cho Seung-Hui was on an anti-depressant medication. My bet, however, was that he was on an SSRI (e.g., Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, etc…)

SSRI’s are given out like breath fresheners in this country; sometimes it seems as if every patient I see is on one. Unfortunately, most physicians don’t realize how radically these drugs can alter someone’s brain to transform personality and thought.

To me, it is remarkable that many of the mass killers in this country were on an SSRI at the time of the massacres (Columbine included) as noted in this article, and it would not be surprising if it’s eventually revealed that Cho Seung-Hui was on one too.

The public (and the many physicians who liberally prescribe SSRIs) needs to be better informed of their consequences- not only for homicide, but also suicide. Their marked potential for heightening aggression and triggering violence (both against others and self) is clearly well documented. [Reference 1] To quote the article’s abstract:

Evidence from many sources confirms that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors(SSRIs) commonly cause or exacerbate a wide range of abnormal mental and behavioral conditions. These adverse drug reactions include the following overlapping clinical phenomena: a stimulant profile that ranges from mild agitation to manic psychosis, agitated depression, obsessive preoccupations that are alien or uncharacteristic of the individual, and akathisia. Each of these reactions can worsen the individual’s mental condition and can result in suicidality, violence, and other forms of extreme abnormal behavior. Evidence for these reactions is found in clinical reports, controlled clinical trials, and epidemiological studies in children and adults.

This is the information drug companies don’t want you (or your physician) to know about. Not when $8 billion/year is at stake.

Let’s just hope the guys who have their fingers on the Big Red Button aren’t on these meds….

[Reference 1]: Ethical Human Sciences, Journal of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psycholoy. Springer Publishing Company, New York, NY, USA.

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If you are overweight, here’s some additional incentive to lose the pounds from a recent study in the journal Neurology that suggests there is a connection between obesity and brain power amongst the middle aged.

2223 healthy men and women between the ages of 32 and 62 were studied. Those who were overweight (as judged by a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25) performed worse on cognitive tests that measured learning and memory ability.

Interestingly, these findings held up even when the cognitive test scores were adjusted for high blood pressure and diabetes (both brain busters tend to be more common in those who are obese).

Earlier smartkit posts discuss how:

• children who are obese by age 4 are more likely to have lower IQ scores (25-30 points)
• the appetite control hormone leptin has recently been found to have an important role in learning and memory.

[Click here to jump to the abstract for the above 'obesity and brain power' study in the journal Neurology 2006;67:1208-1214]

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Here’s some new research that will come as a surprise to most neurologists: Moderate iron deficiency- without overt anemia- can impair learning and memory.

Importantly, the study found that iron supplementation can reverse the cognitive dysfunction.

The study was published in the March 2007 issue American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Women who are pregnant or have heavy bleeding during their periods are felt to be most at risk for iron deficiency.

The study’s authors conclude:

Iron status is a significant factor in cognitive performance in women of reproductive age

To view the abstract, click here.

While earlier research has shown that iron deficiency can have a significant effect on the developing child’s brain power (e.g., poor school performance) the recent research breaks new ground in showing the susceptibility of adult brains to even mild to moderate iron deficiency without obvious anemia.

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Most Star Wars fans know that the dark side of the force has a negative effect on the user’s body (ok, I’ll admit right now that I’m probably in the camp of those who believe "all I really need to know I learned from Star Wars")

"Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they." Yoda

Interestingly, research out of Duke University Medical Center suggests that men who are hostile and are prone to experience frequent and intense feelings of anger, and depression show activation of the complement system and increased levels of C3.

This pattern of inflammation in your body is "bad" and strongly associated with cardiovascular disease (strokes and heart attacks- both of which play a very large role in determining brain health).

The article was published in the February issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Click here for the abstract.

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There is an ever-growing body of scientific evidence indicating omega-3 fats likely play a very significant role in depression. Unfortunately, because drug companies can’t really profit from omega-3 oils (non-patentable), I doubt you’ll currently find many physicians who understand the potential significance of such a simple intervention.

Just a quick stroll through the medical literature reveals the following interesting lines of recent research findings:

• People who are depressed have smaller amounts of grey matter in the cingulate cortex, the right amygdala, and the right hippocampus. Now, new research by Sarah Conklin from the University of Pittsburgh reveals that people who have higher blood levels of omega-3 fats have higher volumes of grey matter in these same brain regions.

• Last year, a study out of the University of Pittsburgh showed that those with lower levels of omega-3 fats in their blood were more likely to be impulsive and have a negative outlook on life. Additionally, those with higher levels of omega-3 fats were less likely to have mild or moderate symptoms of depression.

[Source: The 65th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Budapest, Hungary, March 7-10, 2007]

• Another study published in the December 2006 issue of Biological Psychiatry reveals that patients who had severe depression (i.e., MDD “Major Depressive Disorder”) had a deficit of DHA (the brain’s major omega-3 fatty acid) in the orbitofrontal cortex. The study mentions how prior research reveals that people who suffer from severe depression (MDD) have a deficiency of omega 3 fatty acids in their blood cells.

[Source: Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec 21]

• A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry reveals supplementing patients with suicidal behavior with omega 3 fats resulted in substantial reductions in this sort of behavior and improvements in well-being.

[Source: Br J Psychiatry. 2007 Feb;190:118-122]

• Another study published in the Journal of Affective disorders reveal that regular use of cod liver oil (which is rich in omega-3 fats) is associated with fewer symptoms of depression.

[Source: J Affect Disord. 2006 Dec 18]

• And finally, a meta-analysis (i.e., a review of many research papers) published in the December 2006 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reveals “The preponderance of epidemiologic and tissue compositional studies supports a protective effect of omega-3 fat intake, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in mood disorders” (i.e., major depressive disorders). Furthermore, “meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials demonstrate a statistically significant benefit in unipolar and bipolar depression (p = .02)”

[Source: J Clin Psychiatry. 2006 Dec;67(12):1954-67]

Please note: I am not saying a couple of omega-3 pills a day will cure depression. Many patients do truly need antidepressant drugs. The neuroscientific literature does, however, strongly suggest these special fats do play a very significant role in mediating depressive disorders. While I’ve given a sampling of some of the most recent studies, if you go back further to 2005, 2004, etc…, you will find many dozens of papers supporting this view.

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A study conducted by researchers out of Stanford University Medical Center in California indicates that children who are exposed to severe stress (i.e., physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, witnessing violence or experiencing lasting separation and loss) are more likely to have a shrunken hippocampus.

As pointed out in previous posts, the hippocampus is the “memory engine” of the brain. A weak hippocampus means poor memory ability.

Study author Victor Carrion, MD notes: “Although everyday levels of stress are necessary to stimulate normal brain development, excess levels can be harmful”.

As far as the underlying pathophysiology, the authors further discuss how severe stress increases blood cortisol levels. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid type hormone, and many studies in the past have shown how cortisol is neurotoxic to hippocampal brain cells.

An earlier post also details how Perception of Control determines the extent to which stress is toxic to your brain and body. Children, unfortunately, are much less likely to feel they’re in control of situations. Joe Herbet, professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University notes:

There is increasing evidence that adversity in early life can have long-lasting results on subsequent mental and physical health